Leinster have three up for top award

Rochelle to equal Chris Ashton’s tournament record of 11 in a Champions Cup season. No Leinster player has won the award since Rob Kearney in 2012 but a good outing in the showpiece in Marseilles for any of that trio and they will be confident of winning the award. The Leinster trio are joined by the outstanding La Rochelle captain Gregory Alldritt and the brilliant Antoine Dupont of Toulouse, the 2021 winner. Three Irish players have previously won the award, Kearney in 2012, Sean O’Brien of Leinster in 2011 and Munster’s Ronan O’Gara in 2010, a year when he was also voted the best player of the first 15 years of European club rugby. Voting for one of the most prized individual accolades in world rugby has reopened on epcrrugby. com/epoty with the winner of the Anthony Foley memorial trophy being announced following the Champions Cup final on Saturday week.

LEINSTER’S excellence this season has seen three players make the shortlist for European Player of the Year. The back row duo of Caelan Doris and Josh van der Flier are both shortlisted, as is flying winger James Lowe (left), who needs one try in the final against La